Short on Words, Big on Impact: How to Use Twitter in Social Media Marketing

Twitter does not always get the respect that it deserves, primarily because Facebook gets more media attention and has a few more bells and whistles. Still, it is important to remember that Twitter can be a great marketing tool in and of itself. While it may look fairly simple on the surface, it packs quite a punch; it is fairly easy to get followers and it allows bloggers and businesses the opportunity to get information out quickly, to a variety of different people. The follow tips will help you use Twitter more efficiently to market your business.

Before you do anything else, you need to understand what type of people you are trying to reach; this is your target audience. For example, if you sell exercise equipment, you would obviously want to hone in on people who are interested in getting in shape. It can be a little more complex than that to figure out your target audience, however, so this is not a step that you should skip. Knowing who you are posting for can change the overall tone of your messages, as well as the language that you use.

Particularly if you are just getting started with Twitter, you need to build up the number of followers that you have. Numbers are important here; you want to get as many people following you as you possibly can. Start by identifying some people who fall into your target market. Follow them and see if they follow you back. It is always a good idea to go ahead and put up a few quality “test” tweets before you do this; that way, when these individuals look at your profile, they will realize that you have interesting information and are worth following.

Do not just post your own content; share information from others as well, particularly if it is from interesting bloggers or leaders in your field. When you share something that someone else has tweeted, you may be able to catch that person’s attention. By adding in your Twitter handle when you retweet (@xxxx), the original poster will be able to learn more about you (and possibly follow you back) if they would like. And, it never hurts to share things that you find interesting because your followers will probably like it as well.

Tweet often. Whenever you see something that catches your eye, be it information on a blog, an interesting YouTube video or even a news segment, comment about it. Make yourself seem relevant and knowledgeable. Try to space your tweets out, though, so that they go up at different times of the day. This will allow you to reach the widest possible audience and have the most impact.

While Twitter is not quite as fancy as Facebook, it still has its place in the social media marketing world. In fact, it is one of the most popular social media platforms. Use the information above to help yourself establish a presence on Twitter that will benefit your reputation and your business.